At this conference, we are recognizing some of the research on the affective domain and its importance, but not all professors recognize the importance of this domain. The lack of professors utilizing this domain can be problematic, and we'd like to work on the resolution of this.
The problem is multi-faceted: Professors may believe they are "only there to teach" and the students are "there to learn" and it is not the professor's responsibility to worry about motivating them or making them feel good about learning. Possibly, students don't have the ability to succeed, so why should a professor try to motivate students who have the potential to fail? Shifting from a teacher-centered viewpoint to a student-centered one moves the responsibility to ensure that learning occurs from the student to the teacher. When a student fails, it is no longer the student's fault, and the failure becomes ego-involved for the professor.
Another issue is that many feel that emotion is not supposed to be part of science. Stereotypically, the only appropriate emotion is the "joy" that comes from "the inherent beauty of science." How do we convince professors that they need to bring back a construct that they have been trained to rid themselves of?
Potential solutions to the dilemma of convincing faculty on the importance of the affective domain:
melissa davis
Jan, 2014
380:22510
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